Council Warns School Board Higher Budget Will Not Pass

POQUOSON — Members of City Council politely but firmly warned the School Board on Thursday that they would not approve the budget increase the board has requested.

Councilman Gordon C. Helsel Jr. said he appreciated the job the board had done in formulating its budget. "But I hope you understand that we have a job to do too," he said.

With the budget the board submitted, he said, "We're looking at a 17-cent tax increase hanging over our head and I have a lot of trouble with that."

Even by limiting the school budget to an increase of $675,000 - which the council recommended in a letter to the board and which City Manager Robert M. Murphy stuck to in the budget he proposed to council Monday - the increase in the real estate tax will be 13 cents per $100 assessed value of real estate.

"And I'm having a lot of trouble with that," Helsel said.

Under the plan the board sent to council March 21, local taxpayers were to pay $3.8 million of the $9.8-million total. This represented an increase of about $893,000 over last year's local share, and about $218,000 more than the $675,000 council had previously said it would approve.

But School Superintendent Raymond E. Vernall said that because of confusion in changing the format of the school budget, there had been about $108,000 in duplications. The schools will also get about $7,000 more in sales taxes than anticipated, he said, and will save $20,000 because a special education program they anticipated will be provided elsewhere.

As a result, Vernall said, "We are a little over $80,000 off the target" set by council. A new roof over the Poquoson High School gym will add between $29,000 and $42,000 to that amount, he said.

"I'm going to have difficulty recommending anything more than we said we could support," said James T. Holloway Jr.

William T. Watkins Jr. said he had been overwhelmed by calls from citizens who wanted to keep the taxes down.

Council members discussed some ways the request might be pared down, two of which had been approved by the board and then reversed March 21.

Not hiring an assistant principal to replace the one appointed principal of the new primary school would save $35,000, and hiring a nurse's aide rather than a nurse for the new school would save about $13,500.